Markets - General
Drought is impacting operations along the Panama Canal, one of the largest shipping channels in the world, with restrictions now placed on both the number of ships, as well as the amount of cargo they can carry.
Tyson Foods’ decision to shutter four poultry processing plants, combined with Smithfield Foods announcing the closure 35 Missouri pig farmers, are strong signals that rapid consolidation is already underway.
Jon Scheve discusses the likelihood of USDA changing the average corn yield in Friday’s WASDE report based on crop condition observations, the drought monitor, high-tech tools and social media.
Selling a crop that’s not yet in the ground can be intimidating. But if you don’t get a head start on pricing your crops, you might miss good marketing opportunities.
On March 29, USDA will release its annual Prospective Plantings report. How will acres shake out this year?
The grain markets had several drivers this week, including daily reports from the Pro Farmer Crop Tour, more big purchases from China and continued uncertainty of the crop damage in Iowa.
The losses the past seven to 10 days have cost farmers dearly, says Jerry Gulke. When fundamentals don’t influence prices the way we’ve come to expect, he says it’s time to look behind the scenes.
So often with big USDA reports, it’s not so much what the numbers say, but how the markets react to close out the week.
Sixty-five percent of farmers surveyed in July expect interest rates to climb in the next 12 months. On a positive note, 7 out of 10 said they expect farmland cash rental rates to remain roughly the same for 2024.
Now is the time to be aggressive — not in marketing, financial decisions or crop mix shifts — but in risk management.